Known to the Hip Hop community as Shock G, the frontman for the influential hip-hop group Digital Underground, Gregory Edward Jacobs, was found dead on Thursday at a hotel in Tampa, FL. He was 57 years old.
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In the early 1990s Digital Underground not only had a string of hits on their own but they also introduced the world to a rapper who would later become a household name: Tupac Shakur. In 1991 the New York Times wrote that, the group’s name sounded like “a band of outlaws from a cyberpunk novel,” with a sound that “straddles the line between reality and fantasy, between silliness and social commentary.”
In the now infamous video for “The Humpty Dance,” Shock G took on the persona of Humpty Hump, the title character who donned a pair of dark-rimmed glasses with a Groucho Marx-esque fake nose, a fur hat, and tie. He later became known for the look as exemplified in the video for “Doowutchyalike,” where he encouraged listeners to let loose and enjoy themselves as a saxophone gently riffed over the Hip Hop rhythm.
Shock G saw music as expansive, inclusive and experimental. “Funk can be rock, funk can be jazz and funk can be soul,” he told The Times. “Most people have a checklist of what makes a good pop song: it has to be three minutes long, it must have a repeatable chorus and it must have a catchy hook. That’s what makes music stale. We say ‘Do what feels good.’ If you like it for three minutes, then you’ll love it for 30.”
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Photo By : Aaron Matthews
